But a job description alone isn’t enough. Assessing a candidate’s skillset during the hiring process is just as critical. Museums need professionals with a wide range of expertise—from curation and collections management to education, visitor engagement, and security. Beyond technical qualifications, traits like adaptability, communication, problem-solving, and cultural competency are crucial in a candidate’s success.

By combining well-crafted position descriptions with thorough skill evaluations, museums can build dynamic teams that fulfill job functions and drive the institution’s mission.

Since every museum is unique, these template descriptions should serve as a foundation for customizing to reflect your organization’s specific needs, culture, and goals. These descriptions and skill sets were developed with the assistance of various experts in the museum field. Particular thanks go to Leah Melber, Ph.D., Chris Morehead, Danyelle Rickard, Grace Stewart, and Joseph O’Neill. 

Collections Manager

Curator

Executive Director

Museum Educator

Museum Preparator

Operations Manager

Security Guard

Store Manager

Visitor Services Manager

Volunteer Manager

Frontline, or front-of-house, staff play a critical role in museums, beyond ensuring guests/visitors have a positive and memorable experience. They are often the first, and sometimes the only, staff a visitor will encounter during their visit. Frontline museum staff face many challenges, including low pay, underappreciation, lack of opportunity, burnout, and stress. Supporting them is essential to ensuring they can successfully perform their duties and represent the museum in a welcoming way.

This tipsheet provides topline guidance on how to best support and train frontline staff.

Providing Ongoing Support:

Developing an engaged frontline staff begins with understanding their individual needs and motivations. Why work in a museum? What areas do they want to grow into? Leaders need to listen, learn, analyze, and implement tools and resources this cadre of staff can use to better serve the visitor.

Provide personalized and ongoing support to frontline staff to help improve their performance and address any challenges or concerns they may have.

For example:

• Treat them as experts in their field. Frontline staff often have useful skills such as verbal and nonverbal communication, problem-solving, technical knowledge, and emotional intelligence. Include them in planning for new exhibitions and events to help prepare for instances with visitors that frontline staff deal with every day.
• If possible, offer flexible scheduling to meet them where they are.
• Offer coverage during a shift so that they can take breaks as needed.
• Have ongoing health and wellness programs available, including mental health support, fitness programs, or access to counseling services, and always maintain open lines of communication.

Recognition and Appreciation:

Implement a formal recognition program to acknowledge outstanding performance. Recognize frontline staff for the work they do to ensure visitors feel welcome and appreciate them for their dedication to their roles in the museum.

For example:

• Introduce an employee of the month award program.
• Ensure public recognition during staff meetings.
• Host an annual appreciation lunch or dinner scheduled during a time when all frontline staff can attend.

Resources and Tools:

• Keep frontline staff up-to-date and in communication with other departments so they can answer visitor questions on upcoming exhibitions, permanent collections, and other museum policies so they aren’t caught off-guard.
• Guarantee that they have access to all of the equipment and technology they need to perform their tasks, such as handheld devices for ticketing or communication tools for emergencies (for example, two-way radios).

Team Building and Collaboration:

Model open communication by being transparent and approachable and foster a culture where employees feel safe to express their ideas and concerns without fear of retribution. This can be achieved through regular team meetings and by scheduling regular one-on-one and team check-ins to discuss progress, challenges, and ideas.

• Foster a sense of teamwork and collaboration by organizing and including frontline staff in team-building activities, group outings, or staff appreciation events.
• Encourage open communication and collaboration among staff members to ease problem-solving and information sharing.

Providing Feedback Mechanisms:

Create feedback mechanisms to let frontline staff give input and suggestions for improving training programs, policies, and procedures.

You can inspire staff to share their ideas:

• During staff meetings
• Through regular anonymous surveys
• Utilizing physical suggestion boxes
• Conduct regular check-ins and performance reviews to discuss their progress, provide constructive feedback, and find areas for improvement.

Developing a Comprehensive Training Program:

Offering hands-on training opportunities covering all areas of the frontline staff’s duties helps them become familiar with their responsibilities and gain practical experience. Keep an updated written handbook with instructions and expectations for reference in their workspaces, if possible. Make sure that frontline staff get the opportunity to visit all the museum’s exhibits and attractions so that they are better able to advise and encourage visitors.

Some areas to cover include:

• Customer service
• Safety procedures
• Other museum policies around diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion
• And other relevant information about the museum

Customer Service Skills:

Train staff on handling and anticipating visitor needs including knowing the location of the restrooms, café, shop, seating, or other areas to rest and reflect. To this end, printed maps and handouts with relevant materials could be a helpful reference for staff to use when explaining or to give to visitors.

Other customer service skills include:

• Effective communication
• Problem-solving
• Being welcoming and inclusive to all
• Conflict resolution, including de-escalation techniques

Safety and Emergency Procedures:

Create safety protocols, including if they must conduct bag checks at entrances to prevent prohibited items from entering the museum.

• Develop evacuation plans, first aid response, and managing emergency situations such as fires or medical emergencies.
• Schedule regular drills and training sessions to reinforce safety procedures and ensure staff are prepared to respond effectively in case of an emergency.

Cultural Competency and Inclusivity:

Provide training on cultural competency and inclusivity to help frontline staff interact respectfully and sensitively with visitors from diverse backgrounds. This includes awareness of cultural differences and the skills needed to interact effectively with diverse groups of people.

• Train staff to recognize and address unconscious biases
• Create an inclusive and welcoming environment for all visitors. There are any number of in-person workshops, online training, and blended learning programs that can serve to teach cultural competency skills.

Dealing with hostility:

Being welcoming does not mean letting others take advantage of your hospitality. To address the issue of some visitors who may not have the same sensibilities or inclusive leanings, leadership needs to be proactive about giving frontline staff the training, support, and resources needed to handle situations where individuals are resistant to what the museum is sharing, and their values are not confirmed by staff.

For example:

• The customer is not always right, but frontline staff need to deal with the situation firmly and confidently without fear of reprisal from leadership.

Continuous Professional Development:

Offer opportunities for workshops, seminars, or online courses, to help frontline staff enhance their skills and stay updated on industry trends and best practices. Make sure they have coverage to take advantage of professional development resources.

• Encourage staff to pursue certifications or other training programs related to their roles in the museum and offer compensation (increased pay, covering costs of certifications) if possible.
• Ask for their help with special projects, from making membership renewal phone calls to redesigning museum wayfinding signage, etc. They can be a real asset due to their knowledge of the visitor experience.

By using these strategies, museums can support their frontline staff in getting the training and support they need. This support can have many outcomes that are beneficial to the employee, the museum, and the visitor, such as increased knowledge, motivation, and employee retention. This way, they are ready to offer top-notch customer service and ensure visitors have a wonderful experience.

Resources

• At the Barnes Foundation, Internal Internships Support Frontline Staff
• Front Line Staff Take Center Stage in Career Advancement
• On the Ground: How Visitor Experience Teams Are Teaching Front-Line Staff to Be DEAI Advocates
• Sharing Human Centered Workplace Practices

–Elizabeth Merritt, VP Strategic Foresight and Founding Director, Center for the Future of Museums

In January of 2024, the Bullock Texas State History Museum launched two new apprentice positions in an effort to provide starting points for future museum careers. These positions are full-time, entry-level jobs with benefits starting at a minimum wage of sixteen dollars an hour. The positions split duties, with twenty hours spent in Visitor Services and twenty hours spent assigned to a specific department matching a successful candidate’s interests. Intentionally, the positions remain open-termed without an end date. The Bullock’s goal in offering these positions is to serve as a steppingstone for museum professionals to rise in their skills and leadership potential.

The concept developed in response to what Bullock department heads were seeing in the hiring process—an increase in applicants with relevant academic degrees, but little to no proven museum skills or experience that met the position requirements. This correlated with what many colleagues have been hearing from museum program graduates, who report that their prior short-term internships (or lack thereof) do not provide enough experience to get to the interview stage in a competitive job market.

It took several years of internal discussions and researching state classifications (the Bullock is a state-governed museum) to develop a unique hybrid job description we thought would best entice a substantial, diverse, and multifaceted pool of applicants. We posted the job in the fall of 2023 and the response was gratifying—twenty applicants with bachelor’s and master’s degrees who were currently working primarily in retail and restaurants, but eager to put the theoretical aspects of their education to work. We interviewed nine applicants, using a matrix approved by HR to score them on a points system, and offered positions to two, who both accepted.

After seven months, the apprentices’ progress and growth are measurable; they are attaining hands-on skills in interactions with the public and in our Exhibit Technicians and Registrarial teams, respectively. The supervisors are also growing in their management and teaching skills and have gained dedicated and eager team members who are actively moving department projects forward.

We anticipate that this model will continue to be mutually beneficial overall. Among the advantages:

• On paper and in practice, the value of what an institution does to serve its mission becomes clear, since the positions are full-time and fully integrated into the departments, rather than a few hours a week for a semester.
• Apprentices practice skills needed in the field daily, and while they may work on various projects, they see them develop from start to finish.
• These positions entail deep conversations between different departments, which encourages sharing from colleagues about other museum roles. The participation of apprentices in regular intra- and interdepartmental meetings further enhances their understanding of museum operations and proves effective in tracking the progress of upcoming exhibits and projects. Such updates also fill potential information gaps resulting from a schedule that is divided between two departments.
• The title “apprentice” sets expectations to learn from practice and conveys permission to pose questions, carrying more influence than a title of “intern.”
• Being entrusted with problem-solving on tangible projects encourages initiative and critical thinking as apprentices weigh the options; fallback support from supervisors is available when needed.
• Learning the jargon and vocabulary that is used, whether specific to the institution or industry-wide, goes beyond the theoretical. This instrumental knowledge aids apprentices in discussing their ideas and projects with precision in an environment that positions them as colleagues.
• Through front-line customer service work, they see and hear how behind-the-scenes roles impact visitors’ experiences each day.
• Apprentices now see themselves in the field, are learning their strengths and passions, and can imagine a career path ahead. This opportunity allows them to evaluate how their skills align with their professional interests and to re-prioritize their focus according to what they see is needed to be successful.

For future apprentice positions, the museum plans to prep supervisors more thoroughly on the administration expectations for their roles and the goals of their apprentices. We’ve realized that it would have been beneficial to have more immediate supervisor involvement and support earlier in the position creation process to collectively set defined measures of success and levels of acquiring skills. Administration meeting regularly with supervisors has alleviated some of those concerns.

Apprenticeships in the trades are certainly not new. In a multitude of museum environments, they offer advantages above the internship level, especially as so many internships remain unpaid or are unavailable after graduation. Providing entry points for future leaders to gain quality experiences while earning a salary with benefits is worth the planning and long-term investment.

With many nonprofits facing a labor shortage in today’s volatile talent market, organizations across industries are facing hiring challenges. Recruiting strategies can vary based on industry, organization, type of position, and an organization’s capacity and bandwidth to recruit and hire – there is no one size fits all. 

Regardless of your museum’s circumstances, recruiting during a labor shortage or for hard-to-fill positions can be an opportunity to get creative with out of the box thinking about positions, talent pipelines, community engagement, and the types of experience that can make an impact on your organization. 

Here are some actionable tips and short and long-term strategies to support recruiting for hard-to-fill roles: 

Reassess Job Specs

As your team is creating the job description and mapping out the requirements and “nice-to-haves,” be sure to ask yourself, “Is this really necessary for someone to be successful in this role?” You may have requirements (either outlined in a job description or simply in your head) about what a candidate needs to bring to the role, but preconceived notions can get in the way of finding some really incredible candidates. 

One of the most glaring examples of this is when it comes to education requirements. While education can certainly be valuable, rather than requiring a specific degree, focus instead on determining what exactly is valuable about educational attainment and how it might benefit someone in this role. 

A good practice when deciding if a “requirement” is legitimate or necessary is to ask yourself (and others, to incorporate different perspectives and potentially reduce bias), “What are we expecting with this requirement?” The goal is to drill down to what is actually needed for a candidate to be successful in the position and organization. 

At that point, brainstorm other pathways or experiences that could result in the skills or attributes necessary for the position. If there are other ways a candidate can obtain those skills, you might consider removing the requirement or instead including the drilled down skills and attributes in the job description. Brainstorming ALL the ways someone can bring value to the position and your organization can be a huge opportunity to creatively broaden your talent pool and, ultimately, hire people with diverse experiences and perspectives. 

If you’ve done this and your list of requirements is still hefty and limiting, it’s time to re-evaluate the job specs because expectations for the role may be misaligned. 

Streamline Your Interview Processes  

So many organizations lose hiring momentum and quality candidates due to clunky, disjointed, and unnecessarily long interview processes. Before you post a job, make sure you’re clear on the interview process and ideal timeline. Who needs to be involved? What type of interviews make the most sense for the role? And what is the purpose of each step in the interview process? Ideally, you’re running a similar interview process for all of your roles to avoid reinventing the wheel, to ensure employees are comfortable with the process, and to provide a strong candidate experience across your roles. 

Streamlined, concise, and impactful interview processes can happen in a lot of ways but should always provide value to the museum and candidate. When you have a solid understanding of the overall goals and purpose of each step in the process, opportunities to shift, shorten, or remove certain steps become clearer. And don’t wing the interviews – have a plan and a set of questions that map to the goals and purposes of each step. This will ensure you get the information you need to make an informed decision while providing a strong candidate experience. Remember, the candidate is interviewing your museum as much as you are interviewing them and that is a good thing!

While the length of an interview process will vary based on the museum and position, I like to aim for some type of candidate touch point once per week. This can be an actual interview or, if there is a gap between steps, some other type of communication to keep engagement and momentum with the candidate. 

Communication Can Make the Difference

I can’t say enough about how important communication is in recruiting, interviewing, and hiring – even more so in a labor shortage and for hard-to-fill roles. Having a point of contact for your candidate can play a huge role in creating a connection, understanding their motivations, and, ultimately, making an impactful hire. In your intro conversation with the candidate (either in the initial recruiter interview or in scheduling the first interview, depending on your process), share an overview of the interview timeline and what the candidate can expect in terms of process and ongoing communication. This is also a great opportunity to ask if a candidate is in process anywhere else so you can make adjustments, within reason, to line up timelines. 

Then, continue to check-in with the candidate during the process. I like to do this over the phone to ask clarifying questions in real time and continue to build connections. Additionally, verbal conversations can provide insight that is sometimes harder to get from an email. I’ve had multiple candidates say the interview process and consistent communication played a role in saying yes to an offer. 

For candidates you’re not moving forward with, be upfront and timely to the best of your ability. One of the biggest complaints from candidates is not hearing anything back from companies they’ve applied to or are interviewing with. Again, to the best of your ability, communicate with candidates if you know  you won’t be moving forward with them. 

It can be sensitive to tell a candidate they won’t be moving forward in the interview process – consult your HR team or consultant for messaging and guidelines. 

Equip Your Team For Hiring

For a streamlined interview process to work as intended – and for impactful hires to be made – the interview team must be equipped to evaluate candidates, participate in interviews, and provide the right feedback. Make sure your interview team understands the interview process, has a grasp on the position and its function within the team and museum as a whole, and feels comfortable in front of candidates. 

There are many ways to train and equip your interview team. Some tactics include kick-off meetings to go over the position, interview process and team roles; creating a central hub of interviewing resources that employees can access; and holding larger trainings on general interviewing skills as well as mock interviews for practice. When possible, I like to have prep calls with the interview team before each stage to go over best practices, interview questions, and goals for the interview. I also like to have individual meetings with interviewers who may be new to the process or would like additional support in providing a strong interview experience. 

Open Up Talent Pipelines

When you’re recruiting for hard-to-fill positions, it can be  beneficial to open up your talent pipelines to increase the number of quality incoming applicants. First, evaluate the job boards you’re posting to and whether they are producing the type and volume of candidate that makes most sense for your role. If applicable, identify additional job boards that have the potential to reach your target candidates. The goal is not to increase candidate applications for the sake of volume (then you’re left sifting through a lot of applications) but to increase and reach the most qualified and competitive candidates for your role. I recommend a mix of larger, broader job boards along with more niche or targeted ones for your specific role and industry. 

Outside of job boards, identify groups and organizations with whom you can build relationships to share the open position. These organizations may have job boards, newsletters, or community boards where they can share your listing with their members. With universities and some industry organizations, you can also opt into career fairs for ongoing employer branding efforts, even when you don’t have an immediate open position. Building relationships with potential talent pipelines is a great way to make your recruiting process proactive rather than reactive. 

Recruit Proactively vs. Reactively

When you can, start recruiting before you need to – especially when you have a role you know you’ll always need due to natural attrition or seasonal/cyclical needs. This is where maintaining and nurturing your recruiting channels and talent pipelines can be especially beneficial. You can also keep an evergreen “open talent” job on your career site for all talent or for specific roles – just make sure the message is clear that this “open talent” job is not  for immediate hire but to join your talent community for future roles or ongoing hiring. This way, when you’re ready to hire, you have a head start with a group of candidates who have already shown interest in your museum or type of role who you can reach out to directly. 

Create a Culture of Recruiting

If you really think about it, every member of your organization is a recruiter. When they talk about their job, they’re sharing information (hopefully positive) about what it’s like to work at your museum. Companies can benefit from getting their employees involved in recruiting to deepen talent pipelines. Keep the entire staff in the know about what roles are open and, at a high-level, what you’re open to in a candidate, and how staff can share referrals. When appropriate, ask employees to share the open roles with their communities or on social pages, especially LinkedIn. You can equip employees with LinkedIn how-to guides/tips, content, suggested posts, and links to make sharing easy. 

Send a museum-wide email or other communication when a new position is posted with the job description link, a few high-level highlights of the position, and your “call to action” (share on LinkedIn, send us referrals, etc.). You can also make recruiting updates a part of all-staff meetings. 

Get Clear on Total Comp & Benefits

In a tight candidate market, all of the details matter. Make sure you’re very clear on the total compensation package and employee benefits for new positions. This includes a competitive base salary band or range; details on health benefits and any additional health or wellness benefit programs employees can enroll in, including stipends (child care, wellness, commute, etc.); and, if applicable, a clear bonus structure. You should also review any additional employee benefits that may not be easily quantifiable but may align with candidate motivators. For example, be ready to talk to candidates about growth and development opportunities, volunteer days, flexible and/or hybrid schedules, and other less common benefits that might be available at your museum.

In the current market in which candidates may have multiple, competitive offers, knowing the total compensation and benefits package can help you communicate clearly and effectively the reasons to join your museum.  

You can create a general FAQ sheet for your total compensation package to share with your candidate point of contact and interview team as needed (this is not the offer letter and won’t have a specific salary or bonus structure). To make sure you’re including all benefits, poll current employees on what they find valuable about working at your museum: you may unearth a previously unknown or undefined benefit to share with potential employees. 

Inward mobility/invest in your existing talent

In all of your hiring, don’t forget about a very important talent pool – current employees! In addition to encouraging internal applicants, intentionally look at opportunities to train and develop current employees who may be ready for a change or challenge. Internal employees have a wealth of institutional knowledge they will bring to the new role and may simply need some training in specific functions to transition and grow into your hard-to-fill role. 

Additional Resources

• Workforce & Labor resources in the AAM Resource Library 
• So You Want to Work in a Museum? book by Tara Young
• Hiring Tips to Create Value and Inclusion for all Disciplines in Museums blog post by Ayanna Reed

Welcome, museum job-seekers! Whether you’re drawn to ancient artifacts, mesmerized by contemporary art, or fascinated by science and nature, you’ve embarked on an exciting quest. In this tipsheet, we’ll unravel the mysteries of acing your museum interview—no magnifying glass required.

Here’s the practical advice you’ll need to dazzle interviewers with your confident qualifications and masterfully crafted answers.

Be a Sleuth: Get to Know the Museum

Before you even step into the interview room, do your homework and research the museum:

• How and why did it come into being?

• What is its mission and strategic plan?

• What kind of collection does it have (if any)?

• What kind of exhibitions and programs does it present?

• What is its position in the cultural landscape and how does it contribute to the local community?

• Who are the key staff and board?

Beyond standard experience and qualifications, museums are looking for candidates who will understand and embrace the things that make them unique. Knowing these details shows your genuine interest and passion in working for that museum, not just any museum, and showcases your research skills.

Craft Your Origin Story

There’s a reason why most job interviews begin with “Tell us about yourself,” and not “Tell us about your work history.” An interview is a chance to show who you are, not just to recite your résumé. Don’t be afraid to weave a story. Share how that childhood trip to the Natural History Museum sparked your love of fossils or how nervous you were to handle a priceless sculpture during your college internship. Be relatable and let your passion shine through.

Here’s how you should prepare to make your case for why you’re the right person for the job:

• Make sure you’ve carefully reviewed the job description and that you understand the qualifications and specific skills and experience required.
• Take a hard look at your strengths, accomplishments, and relevant experience and look for places where you have transferable skills that align with the job requirements.
• Come with specific examples and anecdotes to show the interviewers how your skills and experience make you a strong candidate for the position.

• If you feel there are areas of the position you’d be growing into, be honest and transparent about where those are. Talk about your core motivations and interests for growth in the role.

Don’t be afraid to really sell yourself! You’re worth it.

Practice, Practice!

More likely than not, you’ll be asked a variety of different types of questions during the interview. Some will be factual, asking you to share information about your experience and qualifications. Some will be analytical, asking you to reflect on your working style, performance, and characteristics. Some might be behavioral, asking how you would respond in different hypothetical situations. There may even be a brainteaser or challenge question asking you to showcase your skills directly. To avoid any curveballs, it’s best to practice before going into the room:

• Consult lists of common interview questions and practice answering them based on your experience, skills, and qualifications.
• For behavioral questions, practice using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) model to structure your responses.
• Practice speaking confidently and articulately, and pay attention to your body language and tone of voice. If you’re unsure of how you present, try practicing in front of a camera or mirror, or a trusted person who can give you feedback.
• Try to keep your responses concise and focused, and avoid rambling or going off-topic. It is perfectly acceptable to take a moment to pause and collect your thoughts before responding to a question. This will help you avoid rushing into your response and ensure that your answer is focused and coherent.

The more questions you are ready to answer the more prepared you will feel.

Unleash Your Curiosity: What Questions Will You Ask?

Once you’ve thought about how to answer the questions the interviewer asks, remember to think about what you’ll ask them. Almost every interview will end with “Do you have any questions for us?” and you don’t want to freeze like a statue when that happens.

• Prepare a short list of questions that come to mind as you’re preparing for the interview. Ideally, these should be broad, open-ended questions that showcase your curiosity and get the interviewers to reflect on the museum’s culture and priorities. Ask about upcoming exhibitions, community outreach programs, or how the museum handles the delicate balance between preservation and accessibility, for instance.
• Try asking questions about the broader team or department you’ll be joining, which will show that you researched and want to deeply consider the position.
• Try not to ask anything that’s already answered in the job description or on the museum’s website. It’s also best to hold off on questions about things like working hours or retirement plans at this point, as your interviewers may not be the best people to answer them. You can discuss these later when they’re offering you the job (fingers crossed!).
• Make sure to ask clarifying questions if you’re unsure about a question or aspect of the position.

Try to Keep it Positive

Discussing past work experiences is a necessary part of the interview process, but it’s important to consider how you frame them. While challenging experiences are a reality for many of us, dwelling on the negative could lead your interviewers to form unintended impressions about your character and work style. Wherever possible, it’s best to focus on what you’ve learned from any experience and what you are seeking going forward. Here’s how to do that:

• Focus on your strengths, accomplishments, and positive experiences, notwithstanding any difficulties. Even if you encountered barriers to doing your best work, it’s likely you still have things to be proud of from any working experience. Don’t undersell them—extract them from the baggage so you can take them forward with you into your next role.

• Frame challenges in a constructive manner. While you should not bad-talk past employers or colleagues, interviewers understand that working always comes with challenges, and will want to hear how you work to overcome them. Think about incidents where you were able to come to a positive solution, so you can share what the dynamics were and how you conquered them.
• Focus on what you want, not what you don’t want. If you’re trying to avoid repeating a past negative experience, try flipping your perspective to what you’re seeking in contrast. For example, if you did not work well under a boss who micromanaged your tasks, you might tell the interviewer you work best with a supervisor who trusts you and gives you room to learn from mistakes. If you struggled to manage long working hours, you might ask a question about the museum’s flexibility and work-life balance.

Don’t Forget to Follow Up!

After the interview, send a thank-you email or handwritten note to any interviewers. Use the note to express your gratitude for their time and to reiterate your passion for the museum and the position. While sending a note is not necessarily required, it’s a good thing to do for several reasons:

• It shows that you continue to be enthusiastic about the job after the interview.
• It demonstrates that you’re thoughtful, gracious, and grateful for the interviewers’ time.
• It gives you a chance to reiterate any key points or qualifications you want them to remember about you.

Remember, landing a museum job isn’t just about qualifications, it’s about connecting with the soul of the institution.

This guide offers useful tips for hiring and working with contractors and consultants by providing museums with suggestions on good practice from the initial inquiry to the post-project wrap-up. Some of the questions this guide helps answer are how do you find and recruit the right IMP for your project? What should the contract include? How should you determine a budget? What if the project doesn’t go as expected? What makes for an effective, productive relationship between museum and contractor?

The guide was adapted with permission from the Guide to Working With Freelancers published by SHARE Museums East and Museum Freelance. This resource was developed to aid museums in their work with independent museum professionals and it is not an AAM endorsed standard.

Download the guide to Working with Independent Museum Professionals.

Adam Rozan: Let’s start by looking back to 2020, when the museum reached out to the public, to understand better how it could serve and help the people and community of San Diego and beyond. What did you all do, and what did you learn?

Micah Parzen: [The pandemic has] been a new beginning. It’s been a powerful springboard for many institutions to rethink who they are and what they stand for. At the Museum of Us, it was less about pivoting in a new direction and more about doubling down on the anti-racist and decolonial work we were already doing. The pandemic spurred us to fully commit to that work internally and in a far more public way.

Early in the pandemic, we struggled with, “Is my family okay?” “Are the people I’m responsible for at work okay?” “Am I okay?” We knew our community was not okay and felt compelled as an organization to ask, “Can we help in some way?” We remembered how, during World War II, the museum had been converted into a military hospital. We thought, “We have this space. We have this wonderful team who knows how to serve our community. What can we do?” Like every other museum, we were closed, so business as usual wasn’t an option.

Learn more about the museum’s decolonizing work and anti-racist work.

AR: Intuitively, we know that our communities have needs and often assume that we know, as practitioners, what’s best. But that’s not what the Museum of Us did in 2020. I think it’s also interesting that at that moment, the museum paused, knowing that your community was struggling. Rather than filling the void with online exhibitions, programs, etc., the museum paused and reached out.

MP: That’s right. Our years of community-centered work have taught us that we aren’t the experts. This was especially obvious relative to the high-stake unknowns of the pandemic. We didn’t know what was needed most nor what role, if any, we could play, so we asked our community for guidance. We called it our “Proposal to Serve Community Needs.” It was a one-page letter offering the museum as a community resource and asking for ideas about how we could best help.

We distributed the letter on various platforms and received hundreds of responses. Ideas ranged from serving as a morgue or a hospital again to a center for unsheltered folks, a mask-making facility, and everything in between. Ultimately, given our centralized location in the city, we decided that we could play a positive and productive role by serving as a food distribution site. So, we contacted the San Diego Food Bank, which had expertise in that space. We proposed a partnership, and they eagerly accepted.

AR: So, you put the call out, you get positive responses, and you try to move forward as a food distribution site, but unfortunately, you hit a roadblock. Can you share what happened and how the museum resolved it?

MP: Yeah, when we shared with the city that we were ready, willing, and able to serve our community in this way, they flat out said, “No.” Hard stop. The city had officially closed Balboa Park due to health and safety concerns, and no one from the public was allowed in—no exceptions. It was very frustrating and only reinforced that sense of helplessness.

But rather than giving up, we went back to the drawing board. We had created a “Pivot Planning Working Group,” consisting of board and staff, and we asked, “If we can’t open our doors to serve the community, what else can we do?” That’s when someone suggested we use our building and historic tower to share messages of support with the community. That weekend we began lighting up the California Tower in a dramatic blue with a projection of the words “THANK YOU.” It was a sight to see.

Later on, after the park finally reopened, the community had different needs than early in the pandemic. So, we partnered with the San Diego Blood Bank to become a much-needed blood donation site. And then, as vaccinations came out, we partnered with the Nursing Education Department at San Diego City College to serve as a COVID vaccination site. Our ability to be nimble became a superpower of sorts.

AR: Around the same time, the name of the museum changed from the San Diego Museum of Man to the Museum of Us. How does that storyline fit into all of this?

MP: Well, we had started down the name change path in earnest back in 2018, but due to a very prickly reaction from some in the community, we had put the project on an indefinite pause. We were paralyzed and couldn’t find a way forward. However, during the first few months of the pandemic, everything was so topsy-turvy, and people were dealing with so much change. It felt like a long-closed window had momentarily opened up, and we decided to go through it while we had the chance.

So, we worked with the staff and the board over several months, gathering input, figuring out how to address community concerns as best we could, and readying the organization for such a monumental change. Then, on August 2, 2020, we announced our new name, the Museum of Us, along with a new branding system, which included community members crossing out the word “Man” and writing in the word “Us.”

It felt like we had been standing at the edge of a cliff—harnessed up to our hang-glider, trying to muster the courage to jump—forever. When we finally took the leap and announced the new name, there was this incredible groundswell of love and support. We received hundreds of comments of heartfelt gratitude, from community members expressing how much the change meant to them and why.

And then Breitbart picked up the story. Soon after, Tucker Carlson highlighted the name change on national news as an example of political correctness run amok and woke cancellation culture at its worst. Then, the juggernaut of hate started, which led to quite the rollercoaster. But all that love and support buoyed us, and the dust eventually settled. Now we have a name that, yes, is part descriptive of our journey to date but, even more importantly, it’s aspirational. It challenges us to constantly ask what it means to be a museum not just for some of us, but for all of us. That’s the work ahead.

AR: What did you learn from all of this?

MP: Be clear about who you are and what you stand for as an organization. Whatever that may be will connect with some and not with others, but it will invariably lead people to ask themselves who they are and what they stand for. And that’s an invaluable role for any organization to play in its community. For a long time, we were a museum of people pleasers. We tried to make everyone happy, and it diluted our ability to truth-tell, apologize, and hold ourselves accountable for doing better. That lessened our ability to make an impact.

I don’t recommend this, but sometimes, I’ll read our social media reviews when I can’t sleep late at night. You have to take them with a massive grain of salt, but you can also learn a lot. With the Museum of Us, we generally get either five-star or one-star reviews. The five-star reviewers often share how we challenged their assumptions, got them thinking differently, and transformed them for the better. On the other hand, the one-star reviewers often lambast us as politically correct propaganda. What’s interesting, though, is that there is very little in-between. People seem to either love us—and can’t get enough—or they hate us and can’t get away fast enough.

I recently shared this observation with a colleague I respect and admire, and he said, “Micah, I think the Museum of Us is doing something right. Your work is either deeply resonating with visitors or touching a sensitive nerve. Either way, people are responding in passionate ways. Isn’t that exactly what museums should be doing these days?” That made a lot of sense to me.

AR: Fast forward, what does this mean for the museum, and how does this practically impact the San Diego community?

MP: Well, the goal is for everything to line up. We are constantly asking, “Does who we say we are on the outside match up with who we are on the inside? Where are the disconnects? Where are we coming up short?” Our team demands it. They let us know when we act in ways inconsistent with our values. They do it respectfully and productively, but they let us know. And I’m so grateful for that. It’s how we do better. We still make mistakes, of course, but our mistakes today differ from yesterday. That’s the definition of progress, not perfection.

Our community sees that, too. They see how we’ve changed. They see how we are trying to improve, even if we’re far from perfect. They see us as an organization that wants to be part of the solution instead of continuing to be part of the problem. They see us as an organization that wants to be an ally and is learning what that might look like. As a result, they are willing to extend us an extraordinary amount of grace in sharing their knowledge and lived experience as we continue down the path.

AR: How has your anti-racist and decolonial work translated into the organization and staff rebuilding?

MP: We are convinced that sustainable transformational change has to emerge from the inside out. That’s why we began to rebuild the museum from the people up. We knew the devastating suffering we had caused our team through the layoffs we instituted early on in the pandemic, and we wanted to make sure we emerged on the other side as a better version of ourselves.

So, when we reopened, we decided to hire back far fewer people, but at much higher wages and only on a full-time, fully benefitted basis. We established an entry-level salary of twenty dollars per hour, with guaranteed increases for our lowest-paid team members of 5 percent per year for at least three years and a 6 percent retirement contribution. That way, we stay ahead of the pay equity curve over time. We also established a salary cap wherein the highest-paid employee (namely, me) cannot earn more than six times the lowest-paid employee (namely, our forward-facing staff). Not so coincidentally, team member engagement and retention are the highest they’ve ever been at the museum.

Learn more about the museum’s staffing policies.

AR: Can you share more about the business side of the equation? How do you pay for it all?

MP: Well, we believe that if our business model has to cut human corners from the get-go to survive, then maybe we shouldn’t exist as an organization. Whereas most institutions are based on the premise that “more is more” on the outward-facing front, we have embraced a “less is more” approach. While it means we don’t turn over our exhibits as often and don’t have as many public programs as we might like, it allows us to take a “more is more” approach to investing in our staff and organizational culture. It may seem counterintuitive, but it’s critical when you are playing the long game.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m all for transformational exhibit experiences, too. But I also think museums are often overly focused on the visitor at the expense of their internal constituents. Think about it. Even the hardcore fans of your museum likely visit once a year, or maybe a handful of times, at most. On the other hand, our staffs, trustees, donors, and partners are in it deep. They show up at, and for, the museum regularly, if not every day. We are exponentially better positioned to impact them in transformational ways. And we see this all the time at the Museum of Us. Doing the work is—in and of itself—transformational in ways that transcend what our day-to-day visitors experience. So, we invest in the relationships with our staff, our board, and our community partners first and foremost. And it pays off in the long-run.

AR: We’ve discussed the museum’s staff; can you share what these changes mean for your audiences and the broader San Diego community?

MP: Okay, here’s an example. Before the pandemic, we’d long struggled with the very idea of museum membership. It always felt antithetical to our anti-racist and decolonial values. The more you pay to become a member, the more benefits you receive. It’s a hierarchical model where one’s degree of wealth directly translates into increased access and privilege.

So, when we reopened, we decided to turn that model on its head by creating a new program called Membership on Us. Now, anyone who comes into the museum and buys a day ticket can opt into a free program to visit whenever they want, however many times they want, over the course of a year. In other words, they become members on us for free.

We also have partnerships throughout San Diego County where students, teachers, and staff can become members on us without even purchasing a ticket. The same is true for Indigenous community members and financially disadvantaged folks. They are all welcome for free anytime.

Membership on Us has exponentially increased community access to the museum. Before the pandemic, we had one thousand members; today, we’re north of thirty-five thousand. Our next step is finding productive ways of bringing all those new members deeper into the fold of our anti-racist and decolonial work. It’s an exciting opportunity for us and for the community.

AR: I know we spoke about this before, but can you share more about how all this translates to your bottom line?

MP: Well, it’s really hard to make values-driven decisions that negatively impact your bottom line, that’s for sure. But there’s also something very uplifting about it. It reinforces those values in a way that brings even more clarity to the work.

So, if we need to end a revenue-generating loan agreement that dishonors the wishes of our Indigenous partners or “bless and release” a donor who bristles at our anti-racist and decolonizing initiatives, that’s what we do. We may have to press pause on a new exhibit or public program, delay the purchase of new gallery furniture, or wait on hiring for an open position until we can find a way to make it work, but it’s worth it.

Some funders have stopped giving to the museum because our values are no longer a fit with theirs. And that’s okay because so many others wholeheartedly believe in what we are doing and are doubling down on their support for our work. It hasn’t happened overnight, but we’ve bridged that gap, and then some. We’re always looking at emerging trends in the museum field, in philanthropy, and in society at large. Sometimes it feels like we are getting a little too far out on the limb, which can be scary, but we’d rather help create the future than react to it.

This is what I call cultural and linguistic accessibility. Cultural accessibility involves giving access and representation to communities that have been historically underrepresented in your institution. An often-overlooked extension of this is linguistic accessibility—also known as “language equity.” The definition of language equity is threefold:

1. Creating opportunities for people whose native language is not English to feel welcomed at your museum and able to join its community.
2. Extending opportunities for staff members to partake in multiple languages.
3. Taking the active position that every language is a window into a culture and therefore worth preserving.

When linguistic accessibility techniques are used effectively, the results can be truly remarkable. Some museums have already actively worked towards creating change in that direction. Here are four strategies that pioneering institutions are currently using to embrace linguistic accessibility in 2023, and ways in which you can apply them to your organization.

1. Identify a Second Language and Become a Bilingual Museum

All organizations in the US speak at least two languages. The first is English—the lingua franca of business—and the others are those spoken by your staff and the community where you’re located. (If you don’t know what those languages are, quick in-person and online surveys of staff and visitors can give you much-needed data in a short period of time.) For most museums, at least one of these second languages is likely to be Spanish. A little-known fact is that the United States has more Spanish speakers than Spain, with the second-most of any country behind Mexico. Think about that—can a shift in your practices tap into that huge market?

Once you know what that second language is, you can begin taking steps toward becoming a bilingual museum, as the Getty Museum has done. “Over the last two to three years, we’ve been really looking at how we offer programs to our staff and visitors that meet certain DEAI criteria,” says John Giurini, the museum’s Assistant Director for Public Affairs. “One of those criteria is being more bilingual, particularly given that we are in Los Angeles, where a large percentage of the population is Spanish-speaking. We felt it was an important welcoming message for visitors to know that we offer programs in two languages, both English and Spanish.”

For the Getty, becoming a bilingual museum has been more than a one-step process. Giurni says the first step was looking at the museum’s exhibitions, where staff have spent the past two years testing different approaches to offering bilingual text, with the goal to make all exhibitions bilingual by the fall of 2023. The second step has been an analysis of the museum’s on-site signage and what it will take to make it fully bilingual in the future. The final element has been helping staff increase their bilingual speaking abilities. The Getty will soon offer Spanish language classes for staff, both those who are learning from the very beginning and those who are already knowledgeable but want to learn how to speak more fluently about art.

Other museums working to become bilingual include the Guggenheim, whose international presence in New York, Bilbao, Venice, and Abu Dhabi requires initiatives to overcome language and cultural barriers across the institution, according to Ty Woodfolk, the museum’s Deputy Director and Chief Culture and Inclusion Officer. In addition to building this internal communication, the Guggenheim is also focused on building relationships with its diverse visitors, a majority of whom are international. “[We want to make sure] they don’t get there to say I really don’t understand, I can’t see, I can’t hear, I don’t speak the language,” Woodfolk says. As part of these efforts, the museum will soon provide American Sign Language training to frontline staff as well.

The Whitney Museum of American Art also has a bilingual initiative, which is currently focused on creating a space for the Spanish language community, the second most-spoken language in New York. Cris Scorza, the museum’s Helena Rubinstein Chair of Education, has a personal connection to the work as a person of Mexican heritage. “I, as a bilingual individual, can function in an English-speaking cultural institution at a very high level, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy going with my mom, who might not function at that level in English, where she can read the text in her own language and feel like it’s not being dumbed down,” she says. “It respects her experience as an art enthusiast in a different country and connects to the country where somebody could respond in Spanish even if she asked where the bathroom is.”

Embracing language identity as a cultural institution can help you connect on a whole new level with visitors and create greater bonding and engagement between staff and patrons. When language is used effectively, it creates a higher level of trust and commitment.

2. Create Foreign Language Programs for English-Speaking Employees

You can take solid steps in accessibility by building out staff language programs. Denver Zoo, for example, built out its popular Practicamos Español program so that employees could improve their Spanish-speaking skills through conversation, which many had requested as a way to better connect with each other and with visitors. “This initiative sprung from the Zoo’s core value of being ‘welcoming’,” says Dr. Nicole Marie Ortiz, the zoo’s DEIA Manager. “We feel it’s important to us to foster a sense of belonging, both within the Zoo team and for the guests who come to visit every day.”

Learning a language comes with challenges, but it also can be instrumental to teambuilding. As Dr. Ortiz points out, Practicamos Español has not only provided a non-judgmental space to practice language skills, but encouraged staff bonding across departments and teams. This year, the zoo plans to expand on its progress by partnering with its Latinx employee resource group to develop zoo-specific Spanish language resources for staff.

The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) also offers language learning opportunities for staff, as part of a comprehensive DEAI strategy that treats language as a facet of accessibility. Virajita Singh, Mia’s Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, says the museum currently offers two Spanish beginner classes, which it intends to mark “a renewed chapter towards linguistic accessibility.”

While many language programs focus on staff, they can also be something you offer to volunteers, members, school programs, and even visitors. Take a look at Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco’s Spanish Lessons project at Marian Goodman Gallery, for instance, where art, language, and cultural events were on display for an entire month.

3. Create English Language Programs for Limited-Proficiency Employees

While many employees will be fluent in English and need lessons in your museum’s second language, for others it may be the reverse. Nearly one in ten working-age adults in the United States—a total of over 19.2 million people—is a limited-English-proficient (LEP) individual, meaning they have either limited or no capacity to communicate in English. For these people, learning English is essential not just to overcoming communication barriers at the workplace, but to gaining economic and social mobility. According to Brookings, while most LEP adults have a high school diploma and 15 percent hold a college degree, they earn 25 to 40 percent less than their English-speaking counterparts.

One museum that has offered English learning classes is The Frick Collection. In her twenty years as the museum’s Chief Human Resources Officer, Dana Spencer Winfield says the Frick has had many staff who have not spoken English as their first language, but has been fortunate to rely on multilingual colleagues willing to provide translation. However, she recognizes that just translating for staff is not enough. “We know that access is also about understanding and getting full information,” she says. The museum has offered two rounds of English language learning classes for staff in the past, most recently in 2019. The classes were held during regular work hours and all participants were paid their regular salary while participating. During the pandemic, the Frick began translating all formal employee communications and materials into Spanish, and providing in-person Spanish and ASL translation for all staff meetings and events. The museum plans to continue its language programming in the near future, offering English, ASL, and Spanish classes to staff. “This will help us communicate better internally and with the visiting public, contractors, and colleagues at sister institutions,” Winfield says.

4. Hire Bilingual Staff

In addition to helping existing staff learn a second language, you can expand your museum’s bilingual culture by placing emphasis on language skills in hiring. At the Whitney, for example, Scorza says she encourages her peers to be “very intentional” about hiring Spanish-speaking colleagues in every department across the institution. She sees becoming a bilingual museum as about more than just translating labels and exhibits, but embracing biculturalism. “Seventeen percent of New Yorkers are Spanish-speaking. Why not 17 percent of the employees?” she asks. “We need people that are proud of their bilingual identity. Then those people will understand the community we’re working with.”

With a shift in hiring practices comes a shift in onboarding and recruiting practices, including looking for candidates on diverse job boards, recruiting through colleges we don’t usually recruit from, and eliminating terms such as “excellent English communication skills” from job postings. For roles that explicitly require language proficiency, it also means conducting objective language evaluations by an external organization with no say in hiring.

Conclusion

Building a linguistically accessible museum is not done in a day, but remember, it’s not all about the big steps. It’s the small steps you take every single day: translating signage, listening to your staff’s language needs, interacting with the public, gathering your data, thinking ahead. I call these “micro-steps.” When done consistently, micro-steps allow you to make major leaps in DEAI, company culture, and overall wellness for your organization.

I’d like to think of accessibility as an opportunity: an opportunity to welcome new visitors, to have staff-visitor interactions that are truly genuine, to connect with communities on a whole new level, to embrace anyone you might’ve unintentionally overlooked. Keep your eyes open. How can you make your programming creatively accessible?

My challenge to you is to think of what steps you can take in 2023 and beyond to be a champion, not just an advocate, in cultural and linguistic accessibility for the communities you are not only serving, but those you want to serve and those you should serve. If these museums are doing it, so can you.

–Elizabeth Merritt, VP Strategic Foresight and Founding Director, Center for the Future of Museums

To sustain a workplace culture rooted in equity, transparency, and inclusion, it’s critical to invest in frontline staff. Frontline staff activate our educational missions. The impression they leave on guests has a substantial impact on our institution, influencing everything from our reputation to our revenue streams. While they hold this significant responsibility, they are often afforded limited avenues for professional development and growth, despite having strong desires to experience those workplace milestones. At the Barnes Foundation, we recognize this problem and want to counter the trend of low investment in frontline staff. For that reason, in 2021 we launched our Pathways Program, to:

• Create accessible, transparent development opportunities through career exposure internships.
• Offer opportunities for skill development beyond daily job duties.
• Structure specialized career ladders within frontline departments.

Program Structure

The Pathways Program has two branches: Career Ladder (which creates structures for job promotion) and Career Exposure (which creates opportunities for internal internships). For this piece, we’ll focus on the internal internship branch and the initial impact it’s had on our organization.

The Career Exposure branch of Pathways offers paid, internal internships, which provide opportunities for career exploration and skill development. In addition, they can prepare staff for internal promotion and career growth, both within and outside of their home department.

Our sixth quarterly internship cohort began this year. In 2022, eleven interns, chosen from a frontline staff census of fifty-two, worked one day a week for eight to ten weeks—roughly eighty internship contact hours each—in a career exposure internship. For the balance of their regularly scheduled weekly work hours, they continued to work in their primary job roles.

Offering the internships relies on strong planning and budgeting practices, scheduling internships around busy operational peaks. Pathways is reflected in our operational budget through:

1. A cost formula: Number of internships multiplied by the number of intern hours multiplied by the median frontline staff payrate. Institutions of any size can create their own internal internship program using this elastic formula. At the Barnes, we use it to look ahead to plan the next year’s internship costs.
2. An operational strategy: Internship activities are part of frontline scheduling assumptions, just like job duties at our box office or in our galleries. We ensure staffing levels in frontline departments are sufficient and we do not authorize overtime to absorb internship hours.

These practices will allow us to expand offerings in the future in a sustainable way for the institution.

Here’s how our internships work:

Intern Eligibility

Staff are not required to have work experience directly related to an internship to qualify. Eligibility is based on high-quality job performance in the applicant’s primary role. We explicitly communicate that the internship is a low-risk, high-support opportunity to gain new professional experience, and typically will not result in an immediate promotion. We are cautious not to overpromise on internal promotion because we are a mid-sized institution with approximately two hundred positions. Despite this, we still see excellent program engagement, as measured by applications and post-internship program evaluations. Staff share how much they value the opportunity for resume-building experiences.

Application

Non-supervisory staff from frontline departments—including Guest and Protection Services, Box Office, Call Center, Barnes Shop, and Facilities—can apply to the Pathways Program if they have been employed by the Barnes for at least four months, have no documented disciplinary infractions related to their job performance within the prior six months, and receive their supervisor’s referral. The program is open to both part-time and full-time employees. Interested staff complete a web application and are interviewed by a Pathways Mentor from the internship host department.

Mentor Expectations

Interns work with a dedicated supervisor, called a Pathways Mentor, in a Barnes department outside their home department. Thus far, we’ve had enthusiastic mentors from many departments, including Archives, Conservation, Communications, Family Programs, Business Development, Education, Information Technology, and Marketing. The most sought-after internship has been in preventative conservation, exposing staff to strategies to care for our gallery spaces. Great peer-to-peer buzz has also come after Brand Engagement & Marketing and Archives internships, thanks to dynamic staff mentors.

Preparing mentors is key, as they may have varying degrees of experience in structuring workplace learning plans for others. In the Pathways Program, this preparation is a three -hour commitment before the start of the internship. Our Human Resources Director onboards our mentors into the program and provides continued support to help create a holistic internship experience that focuses on understanding the core functions of the host department. This is accomplished through a combination of on-the-job work tasks, observation of others, and theoretical reading and discussion about strategies employed in the focus area. Mentors are not job supervisors; in the event of work performance, attendance, or conduct lapses, they report observations to frontline supervisors.

Feedback

Staff who apply but are not selected to participate receive constructive feedback about their application and interview performance from the Pathways Mentor, followed by coaching from their supervisor or Human Resources staff. For many staff, this low-stakes interview and feedback experience is a professional development opportunity in itself. Early-career applicants share being nervous to apply, and some applicants interview several times before being selected for an internship. A supportive peer culture has organically developed as staff encourage each other to navigate these program processes.

Post-internship, interns and mentors evaluate themselves, one another, and the Pathways Program. Many interns elect to take advantage of an optional resume review and coaching offered as part of an exit interview.

Taken all together, we are investing in shared mindsets, vocabulary, and feedback structures to make sure we’re building each other up through an iterative cycle of feedback and improvement.

Program Highlights

While it’s still in early days, there are encouraging initial signs our Pathways Program is serving both the individual staff who participate and the institution as a whole:

1. High rates of internship completion in each quarter offered.

In 2022, we offered eleven placements and had 100 percent completion of offered internships.  

2. Interns learning a new skill or assessing a career track.

Here is a sample of the skills learned and contributions made by interns in 2022:

We also asked our Pathways interns to share what they found most valuable about their experience in terms of career exposure and exploration:

“Learning about the visual strategy behind retail displays was valuable. It was a surprising part of my mentor’s job that I was unfamiliar with and one of the most exciting skills I learned.”

“I had no AV experience beforehand and was interested in expanding my knowledge base, which would help increase my hire-ability for future positions… programs and events I participated in exposed me to the intricacies of producing events like on-line lectures, graduate symposium presentations, or private party events for which lighting, camera, and audio equipment was necessary… I am grateful for the experience which, regardless of what path my career takes, expanded my skill set.”

3. Sustained program interest, measured through strong applicant and mentor pools

Each quarter we’ve had more applicants than available placements. We publish all internships at the beginning of the year, allowing eligible staff to apply to placements of their greatest interest. We also have enough mentors to fill our calendar through next year.

4. Continued or first exposure to coaching and management practices for mentors.

An indirect but welcome result of Pathways is its opportunity for practiced, new, and aspiring managers to have continued education in high-quality, predictable management practices. For new and aspiring managers, the program provides foundational tools for hosting productive 1:1 meetings and experience in skill-coaching without high-stakes performance demands. For practiced managers, the program provides additional opportunities to strengthen their style and delivery of management principles, especially in giving feedback. This type of exposure strengthens mentor relationships in their home departments, provides an avenue for manager training, and sustains a culture that centers feedback and coaching.

5. An increase in frontline staff promotions.

As a bonus, the program has helped identify readiness for promotion, and in some cases successfully converted participants to a career-aligned, promoted role, whether internally or at another organization.

For example, Roman, pictured above, was a long-tenured frontline staff member, with more than five years of frontline experience at the time of his Pathways internship in 2021. Within a few months of learning the fundamental skills of a K-12 Gallery Educator, he was promoted into an open Gallery Educator role.

“My time participating in the Pre-K-12 Education Pathways Internship allowed me to grow professionally in a variety of ways. I learned how to successfully lead a full tour of the Barnes Collection utilizing effective teaching strategies that would allow students to fully engage with collection. I was fortunate to shadow and learn from the experienced Education staff.”

Even with some staff departing for promoted positions at other organizations, we have not experienced a disruptive amount of turnover within our frontline departments or organization overall. We celebrate staff who leave the Barnes for career-aligned roles elsewhere.

Implementation at Your Museum

The Barnes’s workplace culture, values, and program goals may differ from other institutions, but our advice to others who may be interested in beginning a program like Pathways would be not to wait until your culture and operations are perfect—there’s no such thing—but to create your program as part of broader cultural investments and give it resources to sustain a consistent, fair, high-quality program structure. Here are the elements that have made our program a success:

1. Board and Executive Champions

Our board and executive leaders are deeply supportive of this program as a natural extension of our institution’s founding commitments to equity, inclusion, and empowerment through learning.

2. Commitment to an Empowering Workplace

The Barnes has invested in its employees in many important ways: conducting periodic cultural assessments; empowering interdepartmental working groups to implement enhancements to our workplace culture; offering competitive pay and fringe benefits; investing in management skills; and centering cultural competency and inclusion in our exhibitions, public programs, and internal investments. While our organizational operations and work culture are not perfect, the Pathways Program contributes to our broader investments into positive culture, empowerment, and equity. These programs have brought us together with greater appreciation and understanding of one another’s work.

3. Intentional Program Administration

The Pathways Program was initially designed by an interdepartmental group which included frontline staff. Frontline department supervisors and HR team members implement the program in collaboration with mentor host departments. Pathways is managed by our Director of Human Resources and frontline supervisors, with support from the HR, Finance, and IT departments. Through this structure, we ensure internships remain focused on education and professional development (not on filling an unexpected operational need, replicating favoritism, or perpetuating racial exclusion). The HR department tracks demographics of staff who are or aren’t applying and accepted for internships, and we communicate program goals on an ongoing basis during staff recruitment, onboarding, performance reviews, and everyday coaching. This attention ensures Pathways continues to strengthen our operations and advance our commitment to equity.

The organization celebrates mentors and treats their service as an accomplishment that raises internal visibility for the mentor and their department. The HR department provides mentors with tools to keep administrative burdens to a minimum and incentivizes program participation for mentors and interns in our performance review process.

The Pathways Program is championed internally as an important expression of our mission and a smart business decision by giving our largest and most visible group of staff a program that adds to a stimulating and supportive work environment where they can flourish.

I found myself paying more attention every time the topic of stay interviews popped up on an HR newsfeed. This past spring, I decided to test them out.

I will admit, I was a bit skeptical at first. Over the years, AAM has done annual workplace satisfaction surveys, new hire follow-up interviews, annual performance evaluations, exit interviews, and the occasional employee pulse survey on a variety of topics, including asking about satisfaction with our benefit programs and with how AAM has handled operations during the pandemic. Would stay interviews really tell us something we hadn’t heard already? On the other hand, if they did end up uncovering new feedback, would we be prepared to receive it? Would I have the support of management to follow through on the issues raised?

Despite these reservations, what ultimately convinced me to go forward was realizing that, though I did conduct ninety-day follow-up interviews with new hires, I didn’t have a formal process in place for following up with staff one-on-one after their initial employment. As we wrapped up our annual performance evaluation process this spring, I also began to wonder if there were ways we could be encouraging more meaningful feedback. As much as we say that the performance evaluation meeting should be a two-way dialogue between employee and supervisor, feedback in such a formal process tends to be weighted heavily on the side of the supervisor offering an assessment of the employee. Plus, I had been touting the benefits of asking for and giving direct feedback in the lead-up to the performance evaluations, and I realized that stay interviews would be a great opportunity to elicit feedback on my own work and the HR function itself.

With the support of AAM’s leadership team, who agreed to review and act on the findings with me, I decided to go forward with the idea. I began by inviting all staff members to individual “HR check-in” meetings, explaining that they were aimed at helping me ensure AAM’s HR functions were aligned with building an engaging, inclusive, equitable, and productive work culture. Then, over the course of a month, I met with all staff members (thirty-five in total), including our President and CEO. Most of the meetings—or “stay conversations,” as I like to call them—occurred virtually, although some were in person, and ranged from twenty to sixty minutes.

Results

For starters, I was pleased to find that 94 percent of AAM staff said they were satisfied or highly satisfied with their employment. With recent reports of job satisfaction rates being at an all-time low (with 50 percent of US workers feeling stressed at their jobs on a daily basis), I was encouraged that AAM was faring better than many organizations.

It was heartening to hear some of the most appreciated aspects of AAM’s workplace culture, which included the colleagues, AAM’s mission, being involved in the museum field, and the enjoyability of work responsibilities. Many also mentioned that they enjoy the autonomy they have in their work, value their relationships with supervisors, and appreciate AAM’s leadership. Finally, there was much appreciation shared for AAM’s flexibility with work schedules, our hybrid work model, and new leave policies established during the last couple of years. Many of these same features are consistently mentioned in exit interviews, so I wasn’t surprised to hear them.

On the flip side, there were also some trends when I asked about pain points, including concerns about capacity (feeling understaffed, burned out, overwhelmed, or stressed), recognition for the value of administrative work and taking on additional duties/providing continuity during staff shortages, compensation, transparency in decision-making, and professional development and growth/advancement opportunities. These were not a surprise either, as many had been raised in previous workplace surveys.

I also asked for specific suggestions for improvement from staff, which ranged from new ways to recognize teams for their work to more technology training in order to be more effective at everyday tasks.

Actions Taken

After completing the stay conversations, I shared a summary of the results with AAM’s leadership team and facilitated a discussion on what areas we could focus on for improvement. The team realized several of the suggestions could be acted on relatively quickly, and agreed right away to actions such as tweaking our performance evaluation form to allow for more feedback on soft skills including how we work together and providing basic training on our software platforms.

We also realized that there were several actions already taken or in progress that would address concerns regarding AAM’s travel policy, compensation, and capacity, but that not all staff members had been updated on these pending projects. For example, shortly after the interviews were completed, we implemented a corporate credit card to eliminate the need for employees to request travel advances or expense reimbursements when traveling on AAM business. We also committed to communicating our plans to accelerate the timeline for salary increases, which had been on hold for the past two years, by breaking them down into two parts over the course of the summer, rather than waiting until the third quarter to initiate them, and held an informational session for all staff to review AAM’s compensation program and pay philosophy. In addition, we updated staff on our plans to recruit for new positions and fill vacant administrative positions to help alleviate increasing workloads.

Though the leadership team could commit to these actions immediately, we recognized that some of the concerns raised would need to be addressed over time. These long-term commitments included better promoting and encouraging learning opportunities for all staff, reviewing ways to provide training to improve the quality of supervisory feedback, further defining staff concerns around capacity so that additional action steps could be considered, increasing communications around upcoming projects and capacity so that longer-term projects can continue to move forward, and considering ways to better recognize teamwork, such as incentives and bonuses for reaching shared goals.

Lessons Learned

Personally, I learned a tremendous amount from initiating these conversations, and I believe they have helped me grow professionally. For example, I realized that one can’t underestimate the power of proactively seeking feedback. For instance, even though staff members often tell me they appreciate my “open door policy” and feel comfortable bringing their questions to me, I was surprised by some of the HR-related questions that came up during these conversations. Most were minor questions about using our benefits that they said seemed too small to bother asking about. Proactively having these conversations allowed me to take care of these small lingering issues that just needed a little nudge to resolve.

These conversations also gave me an opportunity to test and stretch my active listening skills. When staff shared feedback on something I had personal insight on, like management communications or HR benefits, it was terribly tempting to “explain” and defend the actions taken, but I realized early on that these conversations were not the place for such a response. I was much better off rebuilding trust by getting more curious—letting employees express opinions and frustrations, asking follow-up questions for a deeper understanding of their viewpoints, summarizing what I was hearing, and letting those concerns just sit in the moment. It made me realize that most of my HR communication with employees is spent explaining or recommending solutions. This was a rare chance to just listen without the expectation of anything more.

There was also an advantage to receiving direct feedback one-on-one rather than reviewing comments received on a survey. Talking to people face-to-face (or Zoom-window-to-Zoom-window), I could witness their enthusiasm, excitement, frustration, and disappointment directly. It’s hard not to feel greater empathy for a colleague’s circumstances when experiencing these emotions first-hand through their tone of voice and body language during a personal conversation.

Finally, these conversations were a reminder of how much people appreciate being asked. Many colleagues expressed gratitude that I was asking them to share their opinions, and said they wished they could have similar conversations with supervisors periodically. Several talked about how different these conversations felt from performance evaluations, where the focus is on achievements, goals, and outcomes. It was a reminder of the universal need we all have to be seen, heard, and valued. It also underscored for me that how we work together is as important as achieving our goals.

Lastly, the gratitude and appreciation I received from staff made me realize that stay conversations can be conducted by anyone, not just HR. I would encourage any supervisor interested in honing their management skills or looking for direct input from their employees to give stay conversations a try.

Conclusion

Despite my initial reservations about my own capacity and the time it would take to complete this project, I am convinced the stay conversations were worthwhile and beneficial to my own work and to AAM as a whole. It was enlightening to hear what my colleagues enjoy most about their work, why they stay at AAM, and what demotivates them. I am grateful to them for candidly sharing their workplace joys, insights, and frustrations. I feel better equipped to give our leadership team meaningful feedback that will help us make good decisions about how we work together. I plan to continue seeking staff input through feedback tools such as stay conversations in the future.

Tips

Thinking of implementing stay conversations at your own institution? Here are some tips to consider as you get started:

• Include your senior leadership in planning to ensure alignment on intended outcomes and support in acting on the results. I pitched a general outline of my intended goals, process, and expected time commitment to AAM’s leadership team. I was fortunate to have AAM’s Chief of Staff and President & CEO as advocates, who helped me anticipate potential challenges such as how we would address concerns and handle negative feedback. These early collaborations gave us an opportunity to discuss ways to overcome potential issues and helped generate co-ownership and buy-in from leadership for taking action on the results.
• Be transparent with staff. Their buy-in is just as important as leadership’s. A well-communicated, transparent process that explains how the feedback collected will be used goes a long way towards convincing staff that these meetings will be worth their time. In my case, letting employees know upfront that their individual feedback would be treated anonymously and only shared in aggregate with leadership encouraged more open and honest feedback.
• Prioritize the employee’s experience in the stay conversation. This helps set the right tone for eliciting meaningful feedback and having a positive conversation. For example, staff appreciated the flexibility of scheduling these conversations either in person or virtually. Sharing the script of questions in advance allowed them to give some thought to their responses prior to the conversation. Here is the script I used, but there are many other good samples online! Being fully present and in a private, distraction-free environment for the meetings (cell phones off) signals to the employee that they have your complete attention.
• Let employees know that your primary focus in the conversation is to listen (rather than react, respond, or fix). It’s never easy to hear negative or challenging feedback, but communicating this can set the right tone for a respectful conversation, even when concerns are raised. Creating channels in which negative feedback can be respectfully shared is essential to building trust amongst colleagues and promoting an environment of continuous improvement in the workplace, and leadership can foster productive outcomes by acknowledging issues raised and addressing them accordingly. As the facilitator of the stay conversations and the intermediary between leadership and staff in addressing the outcomes, I found it helpful to remind myself of the value provided by all types of feedback—an opportunity to learn (by gaining new insights and perspectives) and an opportunity to act (by continuing the status quo or making a change).
• Acknowledge and act on the feedback. I briefed our leadership team on general results and trends before sharing these with all staff. Having this preliminary conversation gave us a chance to discuss how to address the issues raised and led to a list of action steps that we later shared with all staff. Including leadership at various points during this process enabled us to better communicate the value of the feedback received and act on the results.